In the early 1990s, I was employed by a publicly-traded company called Multimedia. It was acquired by Gannett in 1996, so you can be excused for not knowing about its existence. Multimedia owned cable television systems, television and radio stations, and an entertainment business that specialized in talk shows. Phil Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael were two of Multimedia's personalities, whose daily talk shows were broadcast across the country for decades.
My long-time business partner and mentor in television, Bob Turner, was the President of the entertainment arm of Multimedia and in 1991 he received a letter in an intra-office envelope from the Chairman of the Board, recommending that Turner have a look at the enclosed videotapes of a Cincinnati newscaster--- Jerry Springer. Multimedia was looking for new talent to replace Phil Donahue when he decided to retire, a likely event given that he'd been doing talk shows since the late 60s. (Phil did retire in 1996).
Following the Chairman's suggestion, Turner showed the Springer tape to Donahue who thought he had something, and after a pilot was taped, Springer was hired as the host of Multimedia's new talk show.
The first year or two of Springer's show produced mediocre ratings, and it was in danger of being dropped by the stations which broadcast it. Turner flew to Chicago, where the show was being produced, and hired a new executive producer, who had written for the supermarket tabloids ("Toaster Possessed by the Devil"), and also done television works with Dennis Miller of SNL and Jay Leno. Richard Dominick
Dominick would continue as Jerry's executive producer for around fifteen years, and he played a key role in creating a new kind of daytime television. A good talk show host needs to connect with his audience, both in the studio and in the living room, but the content of each episode is the responsibility of the executive producer and his team who find the people and help them prepare for their fifteen minutes of fame. While we can’t ask Jerry this question, as he died this passed week, I suspect he would be the first to say that Richard Dominick made his successful career as a talk show host. In one of Jerry’s obits he’s quoted as saying, anyone could do my job. All you need to be able to say are three things: “Come on out”….”You did that?”…. and “We’ll be right back after the break.”
One origin story would claim that Jerry's type of talk show gave ordinary people the opportunity to appear on television, often with family members (past or present) in tow, and tell their stories. A more accurate picture would involve a well-lit laundromat packed with patrons, each carrying a large basket of soiled laundry. If these descrip-tions still leave you in the dark, do watch some reruns of the series, which are avail-able somewhere on cable.
In the early 90s, the idea of making a talk show with women in the audience exposing their breasts, even if the images were blurred out in the editing room, was a novelty. Richard Dominick produced a bunch of programs with comparable visual effects in his effort to boost Springer's ratings, even after Turner told him not to. Like any executive producer worth his salt, Richard plowed forward and was suspended for a time as the executive producer. But not for long.
A short while after Jerry's re-birth as a man of the people, Turner and I left Multi-media to set up our own production company. Dominick returned in charge of the show and was given free rein by management. Jerry's ratings went through the roof, and his show stayed in production until 2018---twenty-seven years in all. Oprah was on with her daily show for a mere twenty-five years, and Donahue for twenty-six.
While Bob Turner and I left Jerry's orbit before he reached full lift-off, we did learn and profit from him. In our next production business, we convinced quite a number of European television networks (and even the Israelis!) to produce local versions of American talk shows. Some of these exports, though not all of them, borrowed from Jerry's playbook. To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, no one ever went broke underestim-ating the intelligence of the world's population.
Jerry had an earlier career in politics and served one term as the mayor of Cincinnati. He might have had a longer political career, but it seems he decided to pay a hooker one night with a check, and that eventually made the news.
One final note.
About that letter from the Multimedia Chairman to Turner suggesting he have a look at this tape of a Cincinnati broadcaster? The Chairman told Turner he had nothing to do with it. Must have been Jerry's work! How he got that letter and the videotapes into an intra-office envelope at 45 Rockefeller Center remains a mystery to this day.